A rumour worth squashing right here and right now:

When the Winnipeg Blue Bombers receivers gathered for their group photo last season, there’s no truth that the shot was taken in the club’s infirmary or that the picture resembled an X-ray.

Still, what unfolded with this bunch in 2016 is a reminder that – as with pitchers in baseball – a football club can never have enough receivers.

Consider the man games missed by the Bombers pass catchers as a lead-in to the seventh installment of our pre-training camp positional analysis series:

• Darvin Adams – missed 10 games
• Ryan Smith – two stints on injured list, missed seven games
• Gerrard Sheppard – missed six games
• Addison Richards – missed six games
• Quincy McDuffie – missed five games
• Weston Dressler – missed four games
• Clarence Denmark – missed one game

The carnage was particularly bad in that critical Week 6 victory in Edmonton late last July – the start of the seven-game win streak that turned around the season – when Adams, Dressler and McDuffie all dropped due to an assortment of hurts.

All told, 12 different receivers caught passes last season, including Jace Davis, Tori Gurley, Thomas Mayo and Kris Adams – all of whom have moved on from the club. And only Rory Kohlert and Julian Feoli-Gudino dressed for all 18 games.

The changes will continue this season, with Smith’s sudden retirement this spring and with Kohlert having left for the Calgary Stampeders in free agency.

Pencil in Adams at the short side receiver spot. The Bombers have their fingers crossed he can stay healthy, as he was en route to posting career numbers that would have put him among the CFL’s elite last year before his shoulder injury.

Lining up alongside him will be Dressler. Cast off by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he made an immediate impact with the Bombers, leading the club in receptions (80) and yards (1,003) in his ninth CFL season, and his first in blue and gold. For those that think the 31-year-old has lost a step, consider this: in the last two seasons, he has caught 150 passes for 1,944 yards and eight TDs in 30 games.

The rest of the Bombers receiving crew offers up a unique set of opportunities and talents. Stafford and Denmark are listed at the ‘W’ slotback spot on the depth chart and that could make for a riveting training camp battle. Stafford is trying to reclaim some of his magic from 2015 with Edmonton (47 receptions for 732 yards and nine TDs) while Denmark, who had a career-high eight TDs and 53 receptions in 10 games after being cut in the offseason and then brought back after the receiving corps was decimated in Edmonton in July, is trying to find that same mojo again.

The Bombers will look to Gerrard Sheppard, the physically imposing 6-2, 211-pounder who was a beast on special teams before suffering a knee injury last year at ‘Y’ slotback, but he’ll be pushed by newcomer T.J. Thorpe, who is also a leading kick-return candidate.

The ‘Z’ receiver position – the wide-side pass catcher who is furthest from the quarterback – will be held again by a Canadian, even with Kohlert’s exit. Julian Feoli-Gudino had actually moved into the spot late last season as Kohlert suffered through a case of the dropsies, but he’ll be challenged by Addison Richards – drafted 11^th overall in 2015 but crushed by injuries in his two seasons – and Matt Coates, who flashed a solid skill set in stretches with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 34 games over the past three years.

Even with all the injuries, the Bombers managed to average 287.3 yards passing per game – sixth best in the league – and finish with the second-highest completion percentage at 70.1 (Edmonton was first at 71.0).

What Paul LaPolice & Co. hope for now is for those numbers to go up and the man-games lost to drop down dramatically.

X FACTOR

The Bombers doggedly pursued Kenny Stafford in the winter of 2016, seeing so much upside in the 6-3, 204-pound Toledo product who had 47 receptions for 732 yards and nine TDs with Edmonton in 2015.

Stafford signed instead with Montreal but was released last October, along with Duron Carter, in one of the bizarre chapters in a tumultuous Alouettes season.

He has worked with Matt Nichols before, in Edmonton, and if he can find some of his ’15 magic, the Bombers may have another threat in their receiving corps.

IMPACT NEWCOMER

T.J. Thorpe has already received a lot of hype through April’s mini-camp and this week’s rookie camp… and with good reason. He’s a solid 6-0, 200 pounds and has big kick-return credentials. The Bombers are hopeful he can not only replace Quincy McDuffie, who bolted for the Dallas Cowboys, but be a regular contributor to the offence. He’ll be challenged strongly by speedster Kieren Duncan, who joined the practice roster last year.

JUICY NUMBER

24

Receiving TDs for the Bombers in 2016, second fewest in the CFL (Hamilton was first at 34) but up five from 19 in 2015.

Just to put that into perspective, in 2002 Milt Stegall – with 23 TDs and Arland Bruce III, with 12 – combined to give the Bombers 35 scores in a year in which the club finished with 47 passing TDs.